


Quid Pro Quo (Let Me Help You)

by Magicnation



Series: TAZ Pride Week 2018 [2]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Comfort, F/F, Forgetting to eat, Mary's crush is obvious, Nadiya is out of her element but she tries, Nightmares, poor self-care, trauma-induced nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-12
Updated: 2018-06-12
Packaged: 2019-05-21 12:09:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14915105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magicnation/pseuds/Magicnation
Summary: Nadiya Jones and Mary Sage need to take better care of themselves. They start by taking care of each other.





	Quid Pro Quo (Let Me Help You)

**Author's Note:**

> Had a dalliance with writing a text interaction. I think the biggest hurdle ended up being figuring out how I wanted to format it on AO3.  
>  **Day 2: Favorite LGBT ship from the experimental arcs**

Nadiya takes off her gloves and throws them in the biohazard bin. Post-lab clean-up complete, she picks up her tape recorder and heads over to her computer to transcribe and organize her observations. Her office is quiet except for the sound of her desk fan and her fingers gliding efficiently over the keyboard. When she finishes entering her data, she opens a new document and begins her analysis of the results. 

An insistent chiming grabs her attention. The tone of it tells her it’s Mary, who has somehow changed the message notification sound for herself on Nadiya’s computer. She frowns slightly at the interruption, but checks the message anyway.

> Mary: Nadiya it is fucking eight o’clock at night wanna tell me the last time you ate something

Eight o’clock? Nadiya looks over at the lower corner of her screen and confirms that it is, in fact, after 2000 hours. Shit. She becomes vaguely aware of a tremble in her hands. 

> Nadiya: I recall eating at 1100, not that it’s any of your business.
> 
> Mary: How much coffee have you had since then? Never mind, I know the answer and it’s TOO GODDAMNED MUCH
> 
> Nadiya: You can’t possibly know how much coffee I’ve had.
> 
> Mary: Your coffeemaker says otherwise
> 
> Nadiya: God damn it, Mary.
> 
> Mary: There’s a Subway down the street that’s open late. Meet me there in 15
> 
> Nadiya: And why would I do that?
> 
> Mary: Because you’re starving and you won’t be able to think clearly until you eat. And sleep. But one thing at a time
> 
> Nadiya: I was thinking perfectly well until you messaged me and interrupted my math.
> 
> Mary: So what you’re saying is that you find me distracting
> 
> Mary: Wait no first things first
> 
> Mary: Come eat. I’ll buy if you want just eat
> 
> Mary: If you aren’t at the fucking Subway in exactly fifteen minutes from now I will shut off all power to your lab
> 
> Nadiya: Mary. I’ll be there in ten.
> 
> Mary: Overachiever much XD

Nadiya rolls her eyes and looks down at her clothes: jeans and a plain blue button-down. Are they appropriate for meeting a friend at Subway? With a shrug, she decides they’ll have to do.

She saves her work twice and makes sure it’s backed up to an external hard drive, then grabs her coat and heads out of the lab. She pulls the hood over her head as she makes the walk to dinner.

 

“Good, you’re here.” Mary rises from her seat and and joins Nadiya in the line, which becomes three people long with their addition.

“I said I would be,” Nadiya says. “Although if you had any idea the magnitude of the work you’ve interrupted-”

“Holy shit, Nadi!” Mary cuts her off, lifting Nadiya’s hand up for examination. “You’re shaking like a leaf. You have got to start taking better care of yourself.”

Nadiya scowls, but holds off on responding to order a salad. In silence they move through the line as her dinner and Mary’s sandwich are made. They get their drinks and sit down across from each other at a small corner table.

“I need to take better care of myself?” Nadiya repeats, spearing lettuce and onion with her fork and taking a bite. She can feel it go all the way to her stomach. “What about you?”

“What about me?” Mary shoots her a hostile look.

“You’re going to have to start taking care of yourself too. How much have you been sleeping lately?”

Mary takes a deliberate bite of her sandwich, her glare not leaving Nadiya’s face for a second. “I dozed off for about an hour last night. Not that-”

“-it’s any of my business?” Nadiya lifts a brow.

Mary slumps back in her seat. “Why do you care, anyway?”

“I could ask the same of you.”

“Ugh.” Mary rubs the side of her face with her hand. “It’s really not a big deal.”

“Well, while we’re cataloguing physical symptoms,” Nadiya says, gesturing at Mary with her fork, “you have dark circles under red-rimmed eyes, and you’ve complained of headaches and general pains for several weeks. We are talking about chronic sleep deprivation, and I shouldn’t need to tell you why that’s a problem, especially for someone who can fuck with electronics using only her mind.” 

Glowering, Mary takes a drink of her soda, sucking noisily through the straw. “I’m aware of it. But I can’t sleep. I can’t _stay_ asleep. And I don’t want to.”

Nadiya grabs a napkin and wipes her hands. “Then I propose a quid pro quo. I’ve come to dinner, at your behest. Allow me to help you in turn.”

“And how are you going to do that?” 

“I have many means we could try-”

“I don’t want fucking tranquilizers or sedatives or something, Nadiya, unless you’ve got something to stop me from dreaming.”

Nadiya pauses, locked in Mary’s gaze. “I see,” she says slowly.

Mary looks away, watching through the window as the cars go by. “Falling asleep isn’t the hard part,” she murmurs. “It’s staying asleep. It’s the… the nightmares.”

The fluorescent light overhead flickers as Nadiya watches her friend stare through smudged glass. Empathy is not Nadiya’s strong suit, and for the first time in years the fact frustrates her. She wishes she knew what she should do, what she was supposed to say. Probably something that would never occur to her. 

Think, Nadiya, she commands herself. What would Mary do? What would she need?

Gathering their trash, she gets up and throws it away. Mary looks up at the sudden activity, and her eyes widen when Nadiya comes back and, taking her by the hand, leads her to the door.

“Come on,” she says. “You don’t live far from here, correct?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Nadiya, what are you doing?”

“I’m not leaving you alone tonight. You need sleep, and- and I’m going to help you.”

Mary blushes. “You’re, what? You’re going to stay with me?”

“I will.”

The realization that her hand is still in Nadiya’s cool grip sends her heart racing, cutting through the fuzz of sleeplessness. “You- you have to sleep too, though. No way am I letting you get away with that.”

“I’ll sleep.” Nadiya gives her a small smile. “But I’ll stay close, so when you wake, I’ll be there.”

Red to her roots, Mary nods. They arrive at her house, and she reluctantly lets go of Nadiya’s hand to unlock the door. They head inside and stand in silence for a moment.

Nadiya clears her throat, looking uncomfortable. “I can sleep on the couch, or if perhaps on the floor of your room if you’d prefer I be closer-”

“As close as possible.” Mary cringes at how quickly that comes out. “I mean- my room. Yes.”

Nadiya nods stiffly. “Right. Of course.” They shuffle down the hall to Mary’s room. It’s small, and the bed takes up most of the space. Clothes, wrappers and comic books litter the remaining horizontal area.

“Sorry,” Mary says weakly, bending to make a dent in the mess. Her limbs feel light and floaty, but her head is heavy. “I wasn’t expecting company.”

“It’s alright.” Nadiya takes a seat on the bed. “Mary, stop.”

“It’s fine, just give me a sec-” 

“Mary.” Nadiya reaches out and lays a hand on her arm. “Just lay down. You’re about to collapse where you stand.” Gently she pulls Mary onto the bed, where the exhausted woman falls straight onto the pillows and closes her eyes.

“Stay here,” she mumbles.

“I said I would.”

“Stay _here._ ”

Nadiya is quiet for a moment, and Mary feels a bolt of fear and embarrassment lance through the fog of drowsiness.

And then Nadiya says, “I’ll be right here.” Crawling up to the head of the bed, she lays her head on the pillow next to Mary’s, and sleep overtakes them both.


End file.
